LIONEL Andres Messi.
For on days like this, after a night like that, you need to write the player’s full name to give them the proper respect they deserve. Standard journalism rules be damned. For 30 second-half minutes, it seemed like Argentina’s fever dream of a World Cup campaign, was coming to an end at the hands of one of their greatest football rivals in England. That was before Messi decided to shapeshift what had already become an attack v. defence training session into an endgame for the ages.
England, for reasons best known to them (and a large amount of the postmortem from their perspective will focus on this), decided to shut up shop as soon as the second hydration break was called for. They didn’t have any pace on the break, subbed on centre-backs and went full defensive against the defending champions who had already thrown on every forward they could get their hands on. An onslaught — a bombardment of crosses into the box as well as shots from all angles — was already underway when the Albiceleste had Messi down the right. He had already sent a few teasing crosses into the back post.
The 39-year-old, sole leader for goals and assists in the tournament’s history, didn’t have a single shot on target all night, but he was already influencing the game in other ways. Whenever Argentina have felt a sense of peril, they have looked to him in this tournament, and he has delivered by winding back the clock. He is still blessed with that ability to beat defenders over five yards, something the largely Argentina-based crowd in Atlanta had loved. In the closed Stadium, he also became a right-winger, dropping a shoulder and running at people. A 39-year-old man in the final Wednesday of his international career had started playing like he was in the first Monday of his life.
Outswinging corners from one end and inswinging corners from the other were coupled by inch-perfect crosses to pick out colleagues arriving at the back-stick. If this was going to be the last 30 minutes of Messi’s Argentina career, he was at least going down fighting, raging against the light that had illuminated him for over two decades. There must, of course, be some blame attached to England because a part of their tactic was to allow Messi the space and freedom to pick a pass from the right-hand side.
After seeing some of his crosses being cleared by massed English defenders, he opted for a variation. He spotted Enzo Fernandez standing alone on the edge of the area. The Chelsea midfielder, who had already fired a few warning shots in the general direction of Jordan Pickford in the England goal, let rip from about 25 yards out. He caught it to perfection, and the ball flew past the England defence as well as Pickford before thudding into the back of the net.
Argentina and Messi thought they had an opening. England, fearing the absolute worst, decided to take the game to extra time by any means possible. Their opponents, enthused by the change in body language, knew they could finish this inside the 90 minutes.
Having now scored or assisted in 11 straight games at the World Cup (another tournament record), the captain started demanding the ball down the right. After picking up the loose ball, his clipped delivery to the six-yard box from the right had the perfect weight. Lautaro Martinez, on as a sub to rescue the game when they were losing, headed home. Honestly, it would have been harder to miss from that territory. In the second minute of extra time, just like they had done against Egypt in the last 16, they scored. It was the cue for limbs everywhere. The players were celebrating like little kids on the last day of school before summer holidays.
After the game, a few Argentina players again wept, as is customary these days.
Just when it seemed like all belief had been sucked out and the well had finally run dry, the magician and his mates pulled the rabbit out of the hat.
It’s not like this team needs any extra motivation to make it 15 against Spain on Sunday; they have all been wanting to win another World Cup for Messi.
But to win that title at East Rutherford in NYNJ? That would be poetic. For, in 2016, Messi wept at the same venue after seeing his beloved country lose in a major final for a third year in a row. An hour later, he had announced his retirement from the national team.
It led to an existential crisis in a nation where football isn’t just a thing. It’s the only thing. The president got involved. He was part of the #NoTeVayasLio campaign on Twitter (Don't Leave, Lio). Elsewhere in Argentina, Fernandez, then a 15-year-old part of the youth academy at River Plate, also participated in the campaign. "Play to have fun," the 15-year-old wrote in a letter to Messi on social media. "When you are having fun, you have no idea how much fun we are having."
On Sunday, Messi, who has been having a lot of fun in the US over the last 40 days, can win his second World Cup at the site of his greatest agony.
That would be the perfect Hollywood ending to end a summer of football in the country of Hollywood and American dreams.
